Dailymail.com
Nervous flyers now have a powerful tool to help make their next flight all the more enjoyable – an interactive map that forecasts turbulence levels for their route.
It means that they can board a plane happy in the knowledge it’ll be a smooth ride if predicted turbulence levels are low or non-existent. And if rough air is on the itinerary? At least they know to expect it – and will have a good idea about how long it’ll last.
The map covers the globe and comes courtesy of turbli.com, which explains that it uses the same data sources that pilots and airlines use to plan their flights, ‘data that comes from advanced weather models developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the MetOffice’.
Turbli.com’s interactive map, updated every six hours, offers forecasts for the current time, and three, six, nine or 12 hours into the future, across altitude levels between 4,200m (13,800ft) and 11,800m (38,700ft), which is a cruising altitude for many airliners.
Turbulence is marked in ‘heat map’ colour gradations that move from light blue to blue, and from orange to red.
Blue indicates light turbulence, with orange to red indicating moderate to strong or severe turbulence.
Turbli.com says that light turbulence equals a ‘smooth flight’; moderate bumps mean ‘difficulty in walking and with food services’; ‘strong’ results in ‘strong strains against seat belts’; and ‘severe’ turbulence results in ‘violent and sudden changes in altitude’.
Turbulence can also be defined as ‘extreme’, but here, an aircraft is ‘practically impossible to control’ and would be vanishingly rare. The kind pilots might never encounter in a career.
One of the most useful functions of the interactive map is that waypoints can be added.
Key in start and end points for a flight and a flightpath appears so users can see if it passes through any patches of turbulence. Click ‘get forecast’ and the site rustles up a turbulence graph for the trip.
Turbli.com also offers three static turbulence maps – for the world, the U.S and Europe.
These offer forecasts in three-hour steps to 24 hours into the future.